The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) has set a goal of offering vocational training to nearly 1.8 million labourers in 2014, up two percent against 2013.

According to Duong Duc Lan, head of the General Department for Vocational Training under the MOLISA, the ministry will work to get 280,000 labourers trained in colleges and schools, and another 1.5 million, including 500,000 from rural areas, will receive training courses that last up to three months.

Lan said the department will step up vocational training reform to meet the industrialisation and modernisation requirements in the context of Vietnam ’s increasing international integration.

The department will design a grassroots network of 1,465 vocational training establishments, while coordinating with the Ministry of Education and Training to build a national quality standard framework to submit to the Government in February.

It will also step up preparations for the ASEAN Skills Competition that it will host in October this year, he said.

In 2013, the country had 1,339 vocational training facilities, including 162 colleges, 302 vocational schools and 875 centres, offering training to 1.7 million labourers.

More than 1.5 million labourers, including 450,000 from rural areas, participated in short-term training courses.-VNA